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Donors

Find out how to get involved

How you can contribute

There are many ways to donate to the TWS website and the Wild Species Working Group. Financial support is always needed. Images of plants in the wild, seed production fields, and seeds can also be donated. Wild seeds (about 600 to 2,000 seeds) that do not have a protocol page and are being sold on the market would be appreciated. These donated seeds can be used for seed imaging as well as comparative germination trials.

Appreciation must be given to those who have donated to the Wild Species Working Group. We have posted our donors at the base of the home page in the Testing Wild Species (TWS) website. Clicking on each company logo takes you to the company’s website. Without the many donations we have received, this website would still be a dream. Now that the website has been built, our team of volunteers will be compiling data and images to build the seed testing protocol pages and the seed gallery. This will be a never-ending project, but one that is worth the effort to continuously keep improving, editing, and updating.

How to Donate

Please contact the ISTA Secretariat

Our appreciated donors

species

  • Species. A category of classification lower than a genus that is made up of plants which possess in common distinctive characteristics that are reproduced in their offspring. The species name included second to the genus in the scientific binomial. Fenwick, J.R. revised 1995. Laboratory Manual for General Crops- Glossary. Unpublished class notes. Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University. Pages 104-111

seed, seeds

  • Seed. The part of a plant which is able to develop into a new plant. ISTA Handbook on Pure Seed Definitions, Glossary. 3rd Edition 2010

  • Seed. Botanically, a seed is a mature fertilized ovule containing an embryonic plant; usually it has nutrient storage tissue and is surrounded by a protective coat, the testa. This structure is a "true seed"; however, the ovules of many species have additional structures of the mother plant attached or fused to the seed coat. For example, the "seed" of Triticum aestivum (wheat) is botanically a fruit because the pericarp (ovary wall) is fused with the seed coat. In these rules the term "seed" will be used in the agronomic sense (i.e. the true seed plus any accessory structures that may be attached when it is planted in the field; see section 3.2 of the AOSA Rules for Testing Seeds Vol. 1). Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) Rules for Seed Testing, Volume 4, 2019

  • Seed. The ripened ovule, enclosing the rudimentary plant and food necessary for its germination. Fenwick, J.R. revised 1995. Laboratory Manual for General Crops- Glossary. Unpublished class notes. Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University. Pages 104-111

seed, seeds

  • Seed. The part of a plant which is able to develop into a new plant. ISTA Handbook on Pure Seed Definitions, Glossary. 3rd Edition 2010

  • Seed. Botanically, a seed is a mature fertilized ovule containing an embryonic plant; usually it has nutrient storage tissue and is surrounded by a protective coat, the testa. This structure is a "true seed"; however, the ovules of many species have additional structures of the mother plant attached or fused to the seed coat. For example, the "seed" of Triticum aestivum (wheat) is botanically a fruit because the pericarp (ovary wall) is fused with the seed coat. In these rules the term "seed" will be used in the agronomic sense (i.e. the true seed plus any accessory structures that may be attached when it is planted in the field; see section 3.2 of the AOSA Rules for Testing Seeds Vol. 1). Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) Rules for Seed Testing, Volume 4, 2019

  • Seed. The ripened ovule, enclosing the rudimentary plant and food necessary for its germination. Fenwick, J.R. revised 1995. Laboratory Manual for General Crops- Glossary. Unpublished class notes. Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University. Pages 104-111

germination

  • Germination. Germination of a seed in an ISTA test is the emergence and development of the seedling to a stage where the aspect of its essential structures indicates whether or not it is able to develop further into a satisfactory plant under favourable conditions in the field. 2020 International Rules for Seed Testing, (ISTA)

  • Germination (seed testing definition).The emergence and development from the seed embryo of those essential structures which, for the kind of seed in question, are indicative of its ability to produce a normal plant under favorable conditions. Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) Rules for Seed Testing, Volume 1, 2019

  • Germination (physiological definition). A process involving water uptake, metabolic changes and cell elongation resulting in radicle emergence from the seed. SCST Seed Technologist Training Manual, 2018